An ethos of hospitality as public morality in the face of the disorderly process in Nigeria today?

Abstract

Nigeria, a highly populated country in West Africa, has for the past fi ve years been embroiled in turmoil. Agitation arising from displacement of a large number of people coupled with alienation in their own ancestral lands and homes, due to activities of the unpopular Islamic sect, Boko Haram (roughly translated in English as "Western education is an abomination"). Th is radical religious sect seeks in the most poignant way, to create a wide gap for its own conceived Islamic world order by killing, dispossessing, kidnapping and alienating people, especially in the north-eastern part of Nigeria, bordering Cameroon, Chad and Niger Republics. Economic, religious, cultural and political lives of the locals including Muslims are destroyed. No end is in sight. However, in the face of hostility, hatred, injustice, disorder, despair and an attempt to create order, a new form of public morality is desperately needed in Nigeria, today. Th e questions then are: what is this public morality? How can a public morality be facilitated to salvage such a disturbing situation?

A critical analysis of conflicts between herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria: Causes and socioreligious and political effects on national development

“…They constitute the major breeders of cattle and the main source of meat, the most widely available and cheapest source of animal protein consumed by Nigerians. The Fulani own over 90% of the nation's livestock population, which accounts for onethird of the agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) and 3.2% of the nation's GDP (Bello 2013).…”